Pages Tagged “Category: Computers/Internet”
Blog Posts
- Must be Tuesday
“Update all the things!” the stick figure from Hyperbole and a Half shouts enthusiastically.
- Remember Amazon Drive? No?
Amazon is shutting down their Drive service. You might not remember it. I didn’t. But you might have files on there you don’t remember. I did.
- Machine Translation LOCALLY on Your Computer!
Mozilla and Project Bergamot have released a translation tool that runs on your own device, not sending the data to the cloud.
- Auto-Update Overload! (Or, Google Drive-ing me Crazy!)
Two hot takes (so to speak): Auto-updaters shouldn’t run when the system is really busy. And installers that check to see the whether the same or newer version is “already installed” should either be really thorough about what they’re checking, or offer to do a repair install anyway. Overheat! I’d fired up a game of […]
- Using the Internet in the 1990s (and early 2000s)
A few weeks ago, Szczezuja asked the GeminiSpace community: How you were using the Internet in 1991-1995 and 1995-2005? This may be a bit longer than asked for, and I thought about breaking it into smaller pieces, but I decided it would be more appropriate for a Gemini post to be one single unit. 1991-1995: […]
- Overload the Cores
I finally got around to trying out No Man’s Sky a few weeks ago. I started on a super-hot planet, where you need to find shelter and/or resources to recharge your suit’s hazard protection system to keep cool. Got killed a few times trying to figure out what I was doing. And after about 20 […]
- Ya-who? Flickr and Tumblr Were Lucky!
Huh. Verizon has sold what remains of Yahoo! and AOL. For half of what they paid for them. 🤦♂️ To a private equity firm. 😬 Apparently the division formerly known as Oath and later as Verizon Media Group will be called Yahoo going forward, which is probably a good move. I’ve got to say, though: […]
- Online Permanence: Host Your Own or Use a Service?
What you put on Facebook or Twitter will die when they do (or sooner, at their whim). What you host yourself will stay…as long as YOU can keep it up.
- Instagram Getting Even More Hostile to the Web
Instagram is now requiring you to sign in to view public profiles. You can still look at (for example), my Instagram profile, but once you scroll down a few pages, it pops up a login form and you’re stuck. A spokesperson said, “This is to help people see photos on Instagram and then understand how […]
- Thoughts on Tumblr’s Escape from Verizon to WordPress
At least it’s going to a social media company and not another conglomerate. And one that’s more responsible than the big two!
- Dear Twitter: Please Ditch the Clutter
Have you ever been to a Las Vegas casino? The main floors tend toward sprawling layouts, with lots of shiny distractions to entice you to stay and spend more time and money on the slots instead of helping you get where you’re going. That’s what Twitter’s new layout feels like. When Twitter started out, the […]
- Preventing Notification Overload
To keep myself from getting distracted by too many notifications on my phone, I ask myself the following questions whenever a new category pops up: Will I need to act on it? (Likes/favorites are nice, but I don’t need to respond.) How time-sensitive is it? (“Your ride is here” is more time sensitive than planning […]
- Random Thoughts on Self-Hosting
I’ve been thinking about what it means to self-host a service, and that there are degrees even within that. I have a self-hosted WordPress blog in the sense that I manage an installation of WordPress, but I run it on a VPS at a web host. It’s not as self-hosted as someone running a server […]
- Verizon is Already Trying to Sell Tumblr
Wow, that shoe dropped sooner than I expected. Verizon is already shopping around to sell Tumblr. I figured it would be toward the end of the year, not the middle. After Tumblr’s ham-handed ban on adult content last fall purged a bunch of accounts, sparked a lack of confidence, and triggered an wave of users […]
- The Best Backups are Scheduled Backups
I’m thinking about social media backups again after Prismo lost all its data, and after one of my own test blogs crashed. I can and do automate backups on the VPS where I host my main blogs. I can manually backup my social media accounts, but IIRC none of them offer automatic scheduling. I have […]
- Shouting Into the Less Exploitative Void
Sometimes you choose which social app to open based on who you want to talk to who you want to hear what you want to talk about Sometimes you’re just shouting into the void. At those times, I figure I’ll choose the void that feels less exploitative. That’s part of why I still have a […]
- I made my final post on Google+ yesterday
“Babylon 5 was the last of the Babylon stations. There would never be another. It changed the future … and it changed us. It taught us that we have to create the future … or others will do it for us. It showed us that we have to care for one another, because if we […]
- Year of the Social Media Purge
Flickr and Tumblr have deleted content to fit new business models, MySpace lost 12 years of music, and Google+ is shutting down. Back up your accounts!
- Quick thoughts on Twitter’s prototype changes
As you’ve probably heard, Twitter is planning major changes, and is testing them in a prototype app. Threaded conversations are good, though I think the UI here still needs polish. Hiding the interaction buttons until you click on the post: Yeah, it might make people think a little more. Putting some friction into sharing can […]
- Weighing alternatives to Facebookified Instagram
Like many people, I’ve moved away from Facebook over the last couple of years. I haven’t deleted my account, but I only visit once or twice a month, and it’s been a long time since I’ve posted there. And like many people in that survey, I’ve come to prefer Instagram to Facebook. Friends and family […]
- The Smartphone Paradox: Social Media vs. Actually Using the Damn Thing
This post I rescued from my Google+ archive in August 2011 really speaks to how quickly expectations for mobile computing were derailed by the social media feedback loop. Years ago, I wanted a smartphone so I could write down all the blog posts I compose in my head when I’m away from a computer. Now […]
- Hot Take: The Great Flickr Purge
Yahoo was never sure what to do with Flickr after they bought it. And when they realized they’d missed the smartphone revolution, they tried to make it into something it wasn’t suited for (an Instagram equivalent) and couldn’t sustain (cloud storage for ALL your photos!) I remember when they panicked over Instagram and the best […]
- Why I have more confidence in Flickr/SmugMug than Tumblr/Verizon
Last month, Tumblr and Flickr both announced policy changes that will impact a lot of users, and upset even more. Flickr announced that they’d be shrinking the storage offered to free accounts while adding features to paid accounts. Tumblr announced that all adult content was going to be banned, and immediately set about flagging posts […]
- The 2018 Social Network Experience
What it’s like to use Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Mastodon and Instagram in 2018.
- Who are phone notifications for?
Phone notifications aren’t notices, they’re alerts. They should serve your interests as the person using the phone, not the interests of the app or service.
- A Dynamite Approach
Working through a book on modding Minecraft with the kiddo. It knows its target audience: the first few lessons are all about explosions! It’s written for 1.8, which is a problem because a lot of the structure has changed between then and 1.12, but a decent IDE with auto complete and a sense of common […]
- Possibly Out-There Federation Idea
Now that Pixelfed federation and Pterotype are taking shape, I can hook up my photos and blogging directly into Mastodon and the Fediverse, but you know what would be even cooler? Connecting them to each other. A lot of my blog ideas grow out of photos or statuses that I’ve posted previously, as I find […]
- Delicious Irony
While looking up importers that I could use to move various third-party archives into something self-hosted, I found an add-on to pull Facebook posts into Keyring Social Importers, an extensible WordPress plugin. At the top of the list of built-in services: Delicious. “Hey, I used to have a ton of stuff on Del.icio.us! I don’t […]
- How I Use(d) Google+
With yesterday’s news that Google+ is shutting down next August, I found myself looking again at my exported archive from the network. This time I was less interested in the format (which has changed since January – you can export as JSON instead of HTML if you choose, and it includes media now), and more […]
- Upgrade Frustration
A few years back, we replaced our aging Windows PC with a newer system, figuring on using it mainly for office-type applications, casual games, and kids’ games. (Both of us had drifted out of playing the sort of game that really pushes a system’s specs, largely because there was a small person in the house […]
- Mixed Feelings: Facebook Has Shut Down (Some) Auto-Posting
I have mixed feelings on Facebook closing down automated posts to personal* profiles. It might cut down on spam, and it will lead to better descriptions on link posts, but it also locks you further into their silo. You can still write elsewhere and link back to it on Facebook, but you can’t use WordPress […]
- Categorizing Social Networks
You can broadly categorize social networks by four factors: How replies are handled, whether you follow people or topics, is it broadcast by default, and is it one service or many?
- Long-Form Twitter: WHY OH WHY?
Twitter is suited for short statements and back-and-forth conversation. It’s terrible for anything long-form. Long Twitter threads* and images filled with text remind me of the old tech support days when users would paste screen shots of error messages into Microsoft Word documents and email me the document. It was a terrible tool for the […]
- GPS Navigation Options We Need
GPS navigation options we need: I know how to get to the freeway from home. I know how to get home from the freeway. Don’t send me down someone else’s narrow residential streets just to save two minutes. If I’m trying to get somewhere other than home after work, I’ll use GPS to get an […]
- It’s ALL the off-topic boards now.
Remember when we’d talk on topic-focused message boards? Flame wars got heated, but rarely spilled over. If you dared, you could also visit the off-topic boards, at the risk of seeing people at their worst. Social media dispenses with topics. It’s all the off-topic boards now.
- Flickr vs. Instagram / Who’s in Control?
If Twitter and Facebook are like shouting into the void, hoping someone will hear you, Flickr is like building a gallery and hoping someone will visit. When someone finally does, they’ll see it, and look around.
But that scream on Twitter is already fading on the wind.
- It’s not all here.
I talk about different things in different places. Just because I’m not talking about something on one site, doesn’t mean I’m not talking about it. Just because I’m not talking about something online doesn’t mean I’m not talking about it offline. Just because I’m not talking about something doesn’t mean I’m not learning about it […]
- More on Facebook Re-Engagement: Accidental Post by SMS!
Facebook has offered post-by-SMS for ages. They also offer 2FA-by-SMS…from the same number. And they’ve started sending re-engagement notices…from the same number. What could possibly go wrong?
- Link Sharing and Source Trails
I read a lot of articles in one of two ways: Open a bunch of tabs and then read them one at a time Save a bunch of interesting-looking stories to Pocket and then read them one at a time So by the time I’ve decided to share a link to the story on Facebook […]
- Facebook Desperately Wants You Back!
Sometimes I’ll go a week or two without logging into Facebook. It doesn’t take very long before they start sending me reminders trying to bring me back. “See Alice’s message and other notifications you’ve missed” “Bob updated their status” “Carol posted a photo” It’s only been since the weekend and Facebook has sent me two […]
- Personas and Facets of Online Identity
Back in the day, @SpeedForceOrg was my comics fan persona on Twitter, as well as the newsfeed for the Flash blog. As more people joined me there, that seemed less appropriate and it became just the newsfeed/editorial voice. I find myself replying with my main account account to people I follow on the other. Which […]
- How Link Shorteners Leave Holes in Your Social Media
Another problem I’ve noticed in my Twitter archive: Lots of URL shorteners and image hosts have shut down or purged their archives. Sure, bit.ly and is.gd and tinyurl and ow.ly are still around. But in the days before t.co, I used a lot of different Twitter apps that used different shorteners or image hosts. I […]
- Searching Your Twitter History: Case of the Missing Context
One of the problems with Twitter’s search capability is that the results are isolated. I’ve said before that one of the keys to making a social account feel like I own it is that I can find things in it if I want to go back later. You can search your old Twitter posts by […]
- How to Post to Mastodon From Anything Using IFTTT
Update October 2024: I’ve moved this article over to my troubleshooting site.
- Killing the Goose #NetNeutrality
Well, they did it. The FCC voted 3-2 on party lines to scrap Net Neutrality even though 83% of voters across the board want to keep it, even though scrapping it doesn’t help anyone except the giant cable & phone companies and those they decide to bless with their approval, even though it’s the only […]
- The Internet Needs Your Help
On Thursday, the FCC is planning to vote to allow your cable company to decide which news sites you get to access, which streaming sites you get to use, intercept your search queries, charge you extra for accessing specific sites (even if you already pay a subscription to the site in question), etc. Oh, they’re […]
- Groot, Guardian of the Internet
Groot reminds us that Net Neutrality is critical to internet freedom, and we should call Congress TODAY, before Thursday’s FCC vote to eliminate it.
- Deciding Where to Post Online
Things I think about when choosing where to post something original, once I’ve decided to post it. Audience. Who’s going to be interested in this? Family? Friends? Fans or hobbyists or people in my industry or some other shared-interest group? People looking for troubleshooting help? Do I just want to say something for the record? […]
- Ordering Photo Prints: Not Quite Interoperable
On the plus side: I was able to order photo prints while hundreds of miles from home on a business trip, and my wife was able to pick them up from the store the next day, which is pretty cool. On the minus side: It was a heck of a lot harder than it should […]
- DST Google Photos Fail
Google Photos is overcompensating for the Daylight Saving Time switch on yesterday’s pictures. Photos taken at 6:00pm are labeled as 7:00pm. Everything from this summer/early fall (which might as well have been summer) is off, in the app anyway (the website shows the right time in PDT), which at least makes more sense than if […]
- The Color out of Cyberspace
The Verge ponders: Has the internet been overtaken by the eldritch horror of Yog-Sothoth? We’ve got this dimension right next to ours, that extends across the entire planet, and it is just brimming with nightmares. We have spambots, viruses, ransomware, this endless legion of malevolent entities that are blindly probing us for weaknesses, seeking only […]
- Battle for the Net: Help Keep the Internet Open!
The FCC wants to eliminate net neutrality, the principle that ISPs should treat all traffic the same, and not block, throttle, or promote data based on what service you’re using or who you’re connecting to. But we can stop them. What’s Net Neutrality? Simple: your cable company shouldn’t decide where you get your news, what […]
- Photobucket Lockdown: Another Chunk of Internet History Dies
Back in the old days, before you could upload photos straight to Facebook or Twitter or Tumblr, if you wanted to share pictures online you had to host them yourself. Or if you used something like LiveJournal, you could use their limited image galleries. But with space and bandwidth at a premium in those days, […]
- Why Net Neutrality Matters
The FCC wants to abolish “net neutrality”, which states that ISPs should treat all traffic the same, and not block, throttle, or promote data based on what service you’re using or who you’re connecting to. In short: Your cable company shouldn’t decide where you get your news, what businesses you buy from, which video chat […]
- Badgered Over HTTPS
I’ve been checking in on redirected & dead links lately, a few minutes here and there, updating, replacing, and removing where appropriate. And I’m happy to see that a lot of sites have moved to HTTPS. News sites, online stores, social networks, personal sites, publishers…. Not everyone, of course, but it’s a lot easier than […]
- Finally Upgraded!
After way too long, I finally upgraded the processor on my desktop. I’d held off because that always involves upgrading the motherboard, which is major surgery on the computer, and with a small child who wants to grab everything, that wasn’t really a good idea. Replacing phones and tablets, and replacing the Windows box, sure, […]
- Out with the old tech, in with the…slightly less old.
I finally removed the floppy disk drive from my desktop. I don’t know why it took me so long, except that it wasn’t in the way of anything. Living with a small, inquisitive child means either making hardware changes at night or keeping the work brief, and timing it so that he still has enough […]
- What makes online posts feel “permanent?”
Facebook is testing a feature to make their posts less permanent, but they already feel ephemeral (even though they aren’t). My thoughts on why that is.
- Remember Netbooks?
A few years back, I debated getting a netbook for trips. Improvements in mobile phones and tablets have resolved all the reasons I wanted a mini laptop.
- Too Many Notifications
It takes forever to get a new phone’s alert settings just right. Every app is configured separately, and they all want your attention.
- I “Liked” Twitter Favorites
It shouldn’t make any difference that Twitter renamed Favorites★ as Likes♥. It’s a coat of paint. But labels do matter.
- Android Phone: Died and Reborn
The Android 5.1 OTA trashed my phone. I tried everything I could think of, and finally just installed CyanogenMod. It’s outdated, but it WORKS.
- Ode to the Nexus 7
The Nexus 7 Android tablet has been discontinued in favor of the Nexus 9. (via Slashdot.) I’ve had a Nexus 7 (2012) almost since the beginning, and while it’s showing its age, I’ve been trying to stretch out its lifetime, because I actually do still use it on a regular basis. Most of what I […]
- Linkrot, Ten Years On
I found an old post about linkrot in which I wondered how many links would still be around ten years later. It’s been ten years, so I looked to find out.
- I’m Going to Miss the iPod Click Wheel
I prefer the older iPods for listening to music in the car, because a touch screen is a horrible interface for pause/play or skip while driving.
- Did Smartphones Make Watches Obsolete?
Smart watch announcements always lead to people saying phones make them obsolete. But phones aren’t the new wristwatch, they’re the new pocket watch.
- This Fan Used To Post Tons Of Comic-Con Coverage, Then Stopped. Can You Guess Why?
Social media has enabled fans to follow SDCC without setting foot in San Diego, but being part of the conversation has a cost for those at the con.
- Wi-Fi Sprouter (The Seeds Are All Right)
Some things to consider about the experiment with seeds and a wifi router. Plus, we tried a similar experiment ourselves and the seeds grew just fine.
- Reading, Online vs. Off…or is it Screen vs. Print?
We know people read differently online than offline, and now spillover effects are appearing. But do different types of screens have the same effect?
- Five Ways to Use a Smart Watch at Comic-Con
Reading up on wearable computing got me wondering: I probably wouldn’t use a smart watch every day, but would it help at special events like conventions?
- The Self as a Touchscreen
Interesting idea: The Human Body as Touchscreen Replacement. The downside to using a touchscreen over something with physical controls is that you lose that instant feedback of where the buttons are. (Skip a song on an old-school iPod while driving? Easy. Do the same on a touchscreen? That’s trickier.) Your own location sense plus knowing […]
- Apple opens dictionary, abandons lawsuit over “App store”
It’s about time common sense prevailed. “App store” describes a store for apps as generically as “book store” describes a store for books.
- Tablets and the Geek Bubble (i.e. “Who uses THAT?”)
A lot of geeks don’t consider that someone else might have a different use case, workflow or need. Disdain for tablets is the latest expression of this.
- Recent Links: Geography, Internet and Comics
Live wind patterns, historical travel times, reliability of social networking, the importance of web page weight, emergency gadget power, UNIX Daemons and Seurat’s Justice League.
- Who Owns Your Online Profile? Thoughts on Instagram, Facebook, and Blogging
When you live your online life through a social network, you give up control. If Facebook is no longer around 10 years from now, what happens to all your photos?
- How I Actually Use My Nexus 7 Android Tablet
I prefer the tablet to the smartphone when I’m at home, or any time I want to do something for more than a few minutes. But what about the desktop/laptop?
- Nexus 7 + USB Cable = Finally! Upload Photos Without a Laptop!
You can attach USB devices to a Nexus 7 Android tablet with a $1 cable adapter. Even thumb drives and cameras work, though you need an app to read them.
- Mobile Apps and Spotty Connections
Mobile connectivity varies a lot, even in an area with dense cellular coverage. Apps really shouldn’t rely on the connection to be perfect.
- End of the Blogroll
With blogrolls dropped from new installations of WordPress, it’s time to rethink the idea of global link lists on a modern blog.
- The Culture of *Now*
Are you sharing something about a current event online? It had better be really current, because the internet has a very short attention span.
- Yes, It’s Down
Wow. The GoDaddy outage took down downforeveryoneorjustme.com.
- Forgotten Edge
There’s nothing like finding an edge case, thinking “Oh no, I didn’t take that into account!”…then checking the code and realizing that you already did.
- Nexus 7: First Impressions from a Tablet Newbie
First impressions: Good performance, size well-balanced for reading, better than using my phone to type. Sort of regretting that it’s wifi-only.
- SEO Entitlement
SEO articles often make me cringe. The attitude is that Google owes them traffic because they jumped through all the right hoops, and how DARE they change those hoops!
- Not “Frictionless Sharing” Again…
Frictionless sharing is just a way to generate noise. I don’t want to know every article you read on some website. I want to know which articles you think are worth sharing.
- Facebook Sync Messes Up Users’ Address Books
Fury after Facebook messes up smartphone users’ address books: Remember how Facebook sneakily changed your default email address to @facebook.com? … Some smartphone users…are reporting that their on-phone address books have been silently updated to make @facebook.com email addresses the default way to send a message to their contacts.Graham Cluley at Sophos The lesson: Whenever […]
- False Choices, Free Culture and Music.
It’s not just “pay for everything in this manner” vs. “take what you want.” Tech has transformed media distribution, so we need new compensation models.
- Google+, Blogging and the 90-9-1 Rule
Activity on Google+ depends on where you’re looking, and participation rates follow the same patterns you’ll find elsewhere on the internet: many lurkers, fewer posters.
- Not Sure About a Laptop Phone Dock
Techcitement writes: The Universal Lapdock Is Coming: Enter the ClamBook, the first Android-compatible product by iPad keyboard-case maker ClamCase. Using a single MHL cable…the ClamBook provides an Android-laptop experience delivered by your phone. The problem I have with this idea is that it’s essentially a second device, but one that can’t be used without the […]
- Delicious, Twitter, and Linkblogging
Link-sharing site Delicious had a feature to auto-bookmark everything you post publicly on Twitter. Convenient, especially if you use Twitter for link sharing.
- File Transfer
I just spent too long troubleshooting a failed file transfer by email. Appropriately enough, it turns out this cartoon is the top search result for “file transfer.”
- A Decade of Dead Links
It’s been a while since I cleaned out – or even looked at – the dead links on this site. Wow, are there a lot of them! But do they really matter?
- Glow
It’s true. I’ve been staring at two large glowing rectangles for 8 hours now, taking occasional breaks to stare at a smaller glowing rectangle (as I did on my lunch break), and will probably spend some time staring at one of several glowing rectangles during my evening at home. It really sounds pathetic when you […]
- Don’t Use Third-Party Links in Email – Object Lesson: Comic-Con Registration
A click tracker that couldn’t hold up to the strain of Comic-Con registration prevented thousands of potential attendees from getting into the system in time.
- SOPA/PIPA and Stopping Piracy: The (Inevitable) Car Analogy
Imagine that people who don’t drive, don’t understand how cars work, and have never studied traffic engineering decide that they’re going to stop speeding…
- SOPA Boycott: GoDaddy Was an Easy Target
When people found out that GoDaddy supported SOPA, they organized a boycott and got them to change course. But why the focus on them and not the other ~150 companies on the list?
- Klout’s methodology confuses me
Klout’s methodology confuses me. When I first signed on with two profiles — one personal, the other for Speed Force — they classified my personal profile as an “explorer,” and Speed Force as a “specialist.” This makes sense to me. Speed Force also had a higher score for quite a while (it certainly has a […]
- Do you want the Internet to be Censored?
If you live in the US and you use the Internet, you need to know about SOPA and PROTECT IP.
- Origins of Unix
IEEE Spectrum article on The Strange Birth and Long Life of Unix. This was an interesting read, especially for the cloak-and-dagger tactics they had to resort to not only to create the OS in the first place, but to do things like distribute bugfixes (because management was afraid that distributing bugfixes would be considered “support”). […]
- Those Sneaky Aliases
After looking through zillions of bounce messages for patterns, “unknown or illegal alias” is now my official favorite way of saying an email address doesn’t exist.
- Cacheback
You know you’re a programmer when you misspell “cash” as “cache.”
- Blast from the past: dredged up my old netscape.net address
Blast from the past. Doing some email testing & dredged up my old netscape.net address. Had to re-activate it, and the handful of messages I probably saved way back in the day were gone, and now it’s aim.com instead…but it’s still got my years-outdated contact list, including people I haven’t interacted with in a decade. […]
- Recent Tech Links
Linkblogging: One step closer to downloading a pizza! Also: telecom consolidation, password strength, web intents, and more.
- Recent Links: Social Networking
Linkblogging: How long do links last? What’s the future of Delicious? How quickly can you cross-post? Why does this site need to post to Twitter under my name?
- Recent Links: Netflix/Qwikster Edition
By now you’ve heard that Netflix is splitting in two. Here are links to several funny (and a couple of serious) takes on the situation.
- Facebook, or Firehose?
Between the ticker and the plans to auto-share even more activity on the timeline, I’m beginning to think that Facebook should call itself Firehose instead. I’m tempted to ask, “Who the hell wants this?” but based on past experience, that usually means I’m just not in the target audience. TechCrunch | Share Buttons? Ha. Facebook […]
- Reframing the Problem
Sometimes it’s worth stepping back and asking yourself, “Is the problem I’m trying to solve really the problem I want solved?”
- Smartphone: Blogging Irony
Years ago, I wanted a smartphone so I could write down all the blog posts I compose in my head when I’m away from a computer. Now that I have one, I end up reading Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus instead, and I compose blog posts in my head when I’m away from both my […]
- It’s not too late!
Favorite techie license plate spotted this week: GREP IT.
- Most people don’t know how to use Ctrl+F
Wow: A researcher studying the way people use computers found that most people don’t know how to search for a word on the current page! Crazy: 90 Percent of People Don’t Know How to Use CTRL+F Google’s resident search anthropologist, Dan Russell, dropped this incredible statistic on us. And no, he couldn’t believe it either. […]
- Is *Now* Better?
We can instantly post photos, video or words for the world to see, from anywhere, anytime. But should we? Immediacy can be useful, but is it always better?
- G2 Battery Drain, Google Maps & GPS (Update: Wi-Fi)
I finally got hit by the mysterious battery drain that’s been plaguing G2 Android phones. Here’s what I think is happening.
- Recent Tech Links: Unmaintainable Code, XKCD on The Cloud and More
How To Write Unmaintainable Code – what not to do when programming. Computer de-evolution: Features that lost the evolutionary war – ITworld ComputerWorld (via Slashdot) Two XKCD comics: First, “The Cloud” explained. Second, anyone who has used command-line utilities on Linux will appreciate Manual Override. International Usability – Big Stuff the Same, Details Differ (Jakob […]
- App Store: Apple vs. the English Language
Apple denies that, based on their common meaning, the words ‘app store’ together denote a store for apps.
- If You Teach a Man to be Phished…
I’ve dealt with a couple of companies that try to plug the general lack of security in email by using a “secure email” service…that acts just like a phishing attack.
- Recent Links: Moon and More
Linkblogging: SMBC, XKCD, space pics, Flash Forward, mobile web usability and more.
- Google GPS Navigation Needs Traffic Prediction
On a long trip, traffic conditions change. Google Maps uses historic data to show weekday averages, so why not factor it into travel time in navigation?
- What’s behind Twitter’s Ban on Twidroyd & UberTwitter?
So, Twitter blocked access from Twidroyd and UberTwitter today, citing acceptable use policy violations, then classily pushing their own apps. IMO this would be similar to Google blocking Internet Explorer or Firefox from accessing their services, then telling people “oh, you can use Chrome.” UberMedia has made some changes to appease the Twitter TOS guardians, […]
- Sent From My…
Maybe “Sent from my iPhone/Droid/whatever” *is* worth including…as a spelling disclaimer. (Sent from my G2)
- Adobe MAX 2010 in Tweets
Running commentary on Adobe’s annual designer and developer conference in Los Angeles. Photoshop reigns supreme, plus Flash fans and a Star Trek surprise.
- GPS Navigation Convert (Sort of)
After avoiding GPS navigation for years, I’ve discovered something I like about it: avoiding traffic congestion.
- New Plugin: Nice Links for Twitter Tools
The plugin ties into Twitter Tools and cleans up cryptic links, following redirects and adding readable titles when it builds up a digest.
- If This Were a Real Emergency, You’d Be Dead By Now
If a phone menu is going to remind callers that 911 is a better call to make in an emergency, shouldn’t it say so BEFORE a 5-minute authentication, not after?
- Links: Clouds, the Blue ‘e’, and Bobby Tables
Incredible photo from APOD: Clouds, Birds, Moon, Venus. I’ve finally replaced my Woodbridge Snow photo as my desktop wallpaper at home. Microsoft provides an interesting look back at the evolution of the Internet Explorer logo over the past fifteen (yes, fifteen) years. 100-year data preservation. A 350-year-old copy of Shakespeare is still readable. But what […]
- Iconic Imagery
iTunes 10 has shed the CD imagery in its new icon. And yet a floppy disk is still the universal toolbar image for “save.”
- The Anti-Vista
ZDNet reports that Windows 7 is doing what Vista couldn’t: convincing people to replace Windows XP. The best quote in this article: “Windows 7 is the Anti-Vista.”
- Promoting Old Posts
There’s a plugin to automatically tweet links to old posts – but is it an effective way to promote forgotten gems?
- Links! Alarms, Ghosts of History, Firefly Trek, WW2 Star Wars & More
Hazards of too many alarms; Merging historical and modern photos; Computer lightning safety; Allergies, Star Wars as World War II; Firefly as Star Trek, SMBC’s Logogeneplex.
- Links: Identity, Kindle, Language, and the Moon
Linkblogging: Privacy in terms of identity. The new Kindle. The future of old-timey language. Geek Merit Badges. The Moon Hoax debunked as a comic.
- Internet Access at Comic-Con
This year they had two wifi networks in the lobbies & event rooms, one free & crowded, the other paid & nice. Phone reception varied widely.
- Thoughts on Screenshots for Tech Support
I used to get annoyed when someone would send a complete screen shot along with their tech support request. I thought it was a waste of bandwidth when a simple text message would do just as well, and be faster to send, receive and display. But the thing is, screenshots have their advantages. For one […]
- Netbook, Phone or Tablet?
Comic-Con International is rapidly approaching, and you know what that means: it means I’m thinking about mobile computing again! Right now, I’ve got a G1 Android-based phone, and Katie and I share a MacBook. The G1 is showing its age, and it would be nice to have a second computer to do things like manage […]
- Links: Doomed Data, Web Services, WTF Textbook Questions & More
An experiment: I’ve modified* Twitter Tools to create digest posts as drafts instead of publishing immediately. That gives me a chance to edit a week’s worth of random thoughts and links down to the interesting stuff, clean things up a bit, expand things that could use more detail, and remind myself of items that I […]
- Dreamwidth and Debian
Whenever I visit a Dreamwidth journal and leave it open in a tab, I always find myself wondering why I was looking at the Debian website. For obvious reasons.
- Why Link Length Matters
Twitter writes that link length shouldn’t matter, but the zillions of URL shortening services out there show that, for now, it does. But why? There are two main reasons to shorten* a link: There’s a technical limit, such as SMS message length or email line width. You expect people to manually enter the URL. Right […]
- Your MOM was Photoshopped!
So, remember this photo of a door labeled “This is not a door?” Last year, someone else sent a picture of the same door to FAIL Blog. Then a week ago, someone submitted mine to Friends of Irony, where Katie spotted it a few days later. Here’s where things get interesting. On both sites, people […]
- Last Days of the Floppy Disk
The last days of the floppy diskette are approaching: Sony will stop selling them in Japan next year. No word on how long they’ll continue selling them in the US…but when was the last time you saw a new computer with a floppy disk drive?
- Hello chkdsk, my old friend…
Hello chkdsk, my old friend I’ve got to run you once again Cause my Windows box is acting weird And the disk drive must need something cleared And the error that was printed on my screen Made me scream And put aside my work For chkdsk
- Inbox 50
Slowly but surely, my email cleanup continues. After paring my inbox down to 100 items in mid-January, then 75 by the end of the month, I set my next goal of getting it down to 50 by the end of February. I just made it. I managed to hold in the 60-65 range for most […]
- G1 Will Get Android 2.1 After All (Update: No)
Android and Me is reporting that all Android phones in the U.S. will get Android 2.1 updates — even the G1 — but that they may be missing some features and some models will need to be wiped as part of the installation. That makes sense, because it would allow developers to reassign some of […]
- Death Knell for BlogExplosion? – UPDATED
BlogExplosion is in disarray again. No admin, a backlog of approvals, spammers on the forums, MIA owners…and now it’s breaking down with no one to fix it.
- Inbox 75
Well, I actually made one of my goals for January. I not only got my email inbox down to 100, I got it to my secondary goal of 75! A lot of what’s left are to-do items for my Flash website. (Some reminders I sent to myself, some info people sent me.) I should either […]
- Inbox 100
My email inbox is now below 100 messages. It’s kind of sad that this is actually an accomplishment.
- First CD Since…???
I’m burning an actual CD-ROM for the first time in…a really long time. With USB, fast Internet & external drives, I hardly ever need to. Even when I do need to burn an install disk for Linux, it’s usually a re-writable disc — and now that Fedora offers live upgrades, I don’t even have to […]
- Y2K10
1. SpamAssassin has been marking mail from 2010 as “grossly in the future.” It’s been fixed in the beta for months, but they issued an emergency update over the holiday. Of course, if they’d done the test by using math instead of pattern matching, it wouldn’t have been an issue in the first place. (via […]
- Nexus One Thoughts
Google’s Nexus One could well be my next phone…but I’m not ready to give up my physical keyboard just yet.
- Location, Location, Location
As near as I can tell, all they sell are iPod/iPhone accessories. But they’re right across from the Apple Store.
- Twitter is…
Twitter is never having to say TL;DR
- Manic Monday
First, some linkblogging… The Spam Primer has been “completely revamped.” Mars Express Orbiter catches video of moons Phobos and Deimos. And then the “fun” started. Me: I’m going to focus on project X today! Computer needed for project X: I’m going to lock up today! Me: Argh! Someone thought it would be a good idea […]
- First Look Through Google Goggles
I tried out Google’s new Goggles app. Basically it lets you use the camera on an Android phone to do an image-based search. The examples include landmarks, book covers, artwork, logos, contact info, and places. So I played with it for a bit at home tonight. It’s good at picking out book covers and logos, […]
- Netbook, Laptop or Smartphone?
I briefly considered doing a fresh install on the old PowerBook to see if it could be used as a second laptop, instead of just wiping it to recycle, but quickly remembered that the reason we replaced it was a hardware problem. Still, it would be nice to have two portable computers for when we […]
- Retweet Beta
The major problem I see with the new retweet feature in beta on Twitter is that (for now) the posts are invisible to API clients. Since I do most of my Twitter activity through Twidroid (on my phone) and Twhirl (on the desktop), that means if someone I follow retweets a post using the new […]
- CDN Breakdown=Bad. Best Buy Mobile Site=Good
One minor rant, and one success story, sort of connected. The rant: My internet connection is acting kind of flaky tonight. Actually, the connection is fine, but it isn’t talking to some content delivery network(s). All the small-time websites load perfectly, but a lot of the larger ones either aren’t loading at all or are […]
- Google It!
Whenever my site gets hits from Google’s Italian site, my brain insists on reading it as “Google It!”
- Power Down
Subject: An old G4 PowerBook laptop which locks up after several hours of use. Goals: Test the memory so that, if it’s good, we can resell it instead of recycling it. Wipe the hard disk so that we can recycle the computer. Tools: Tech Tool Pro 4 disc Tech Tool Pro 5 disc Mac OS […]
- Seanchan Programmers
A tech list is discussing EAGAIN errors, and I keep misreading it as EGEANIN.
- G1: No Android 2 for You!
Early reports say that Android 2.0 won’t fit on the T-Mobile G1. My reaction is mixed: Sure, you drop old hardware eventually, but it’s only been a year.
- Droidmark
I wonder if Lucasfilm will try to assert trademark over the Motorola/Verizon Droid?
- Misandroid
Oh noes! A computer environment (Android) designed for smartphones isn’t a good fit for a netbook? Stop the presses!
- Books on Nooks
With Barnes & Noble’s new eBook reader, you could read a Nook book in a book nook.
- Ads Should Not *Break* Streaming Video
After finishing season one of Leverage on Netflix, we’ve started watching season two on TNT’s website. Netflix’s streaming video has been great, and TNT’s has been decent enough aside from dropping out of full-screen for commercials…until yesterday. Last night, while watching “The Order 23 Job” on our MacBook, we got to the final commercial break […]
- Frustrations (And a Few Bright Spots)
Hard disks should not sound like buzz saws. Slashdot article “FOSS Sexism Claims Met With Ire & Denial”…gets met with ire & denial. *headdesk* Listening to lightsaber sounds from across the office. I think my coworker w/ the new Android phone found an app for that. Vertical Horizon’s Burning the Days is growing on me, […]
- Android FTW!
I wasn’t planning to have a donut today, but T-Mobile just sent Android 1.6 to my phone. I’ve had it almost a year now, and it’s actually a better phone now than it was when I bought it! How cool is that?
- The Trouble With Trending Topics
Problem: Twitter trending topics are quickly flooded with in-jokes & spam. There’s no context if you don’t already know what they’re about.
- Android C&D
WTF? Google C&Ds Android modder Cyanogen. Isn’t it supposed to be licensed open-source in the first place? The cease-and-desist order is about Google’s apps (Maps, Gmail, etc.) that are pre-installed, not about the operating system itself, but still, it feels like a violation of the spirit if not the letter of the license.
- Eyestrain
Yes! Realized eyestrain was a problem and finally got the PC set up on my original monitor. Bigger is nice, but more importantly, it’s NOT BLURRY! Still not sure how I went 1.5 months without fixing the refresh rate on the temporary monitor. Usually the flicker drives me *consciously* crazy.
- Smartphone Radiation
Wow! Glad I didn’t move to a MyTouch! The G1 isn’t in the Top 10 Radiation-Emitting smartphones list, but it’s not exactly low either. The MyTouch, on the other hand, is #1.
- Wingnet
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a truck full of disks on the freeway. Or a pigeon with a datacard. [A] company in South Africa called Unlimited IT, frustrated by terribly slow Internet speeds, decided to prove their point by sending an actual homing pigeon with a “data card” strapped to its leg from one of […]
- Ada Pong
Just realized the “busy” animation in the ada (desktop Twitter client) titlebar is actually a miniature game of Pong.
- Hero, Headlines & Spam
Just learned “Holding Out for a Hero” is cowritten by Jim Steinman. Explains why it keeps turning into “Good Girls Go to Heaven” in my head Writing for Twitter Spam vs SPAM. I suspect it’s way too late to close the barn door on this one. Kinda like “hacker.”
- G1 Nearing Upgrade Limits?
I love my T-Mobile G1, but it’s no secret that the phone has way too little internal memory. Now Engadget reports that the limited memory could prevent the G1 from running future versions of the Android operating system. You can add plenty of data storage (images, music, app data) by dropping in any size Micro-SD […]
- Trying Sherpa for Android
Testing out Sherpa on my Android G1 phone. Not terribly impressed.
- Comp Bits
Huh. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a power-only USB cable before. Would be nice if it was LABELED as such. Ugh. “Refurb Madness.” Bad pun. Stay in the corner.
- Looking for a Good Android Twitter App
I love Twidroid, but I’m looking for a good secondary app – I’ve tried I Tweet, Twitly, Loquacious, Twit2Go and Twitta, but none of them quite make it.
- The Network PC Returns
So if I’ve got this right, Google Chrome OS is essentially booting your computer directly to a web browser? Thin clients really are back.
- Out with the Old
OK, I think the new server is tested enough for now. Time for lunch. And, I think, a walk. … Odd: I just watched two people tossing things over the edge of the roof of an office building in the distance for several minutes. … I’ve just turned off our oldest internet-facing server. I’m not […]
- DMOZ Contact Unknown
So is dmoz.org dead or what? Applied to edit a category, got the “reply to this to confirm” message, replied…and got user unknown. Update: I re-sent my confirmation from another address and it went through. Apparently their server doesn’t like mail from pobox.com. But instead of saying so, it gives a bogus “user unknown” error.
- Coffee Cliché
Realized I’m doing the cliche coffee+laptop+wifi thing…except I’m at home with coffee I brewed myself and using my own network.
- The Twitpocalypse Explained in Layman’s Terms
Here’s what’s going on, in layman’s terms.
- Why I Want a Netbook (and why I’m not letting myself get one)
I’ve started seriously thinking about a netbook to get around a few issues with posting by phone, but I know I’d only use it once a year.
- Goodbye Ed and the :-) Key
Pair of spam subjects: “Say goodbye to ED” and “A person is missing!” Well, yeah, after Ed left… Just noticed the android virtual keyboard has a key for 🙂 when typing text messages.
- Boot Test
Yesterday it worked. Today it is not working. Servers are like that when some daemon was running in tests but wasn’t set to start on boot.
- Kindle DX: A Digital Comics Platform?
The Kindle DX screen is comparable in size to a manga page. It’s black and white, but it could easily handle print comics without formatting or zoom.
- Ambitious, crazy, or both?
Interesting read: Backing up Geocities: Lessons so far. A side-effect of the whole process is I now know way, way, way too much about Geocities than I ever expected to. We’ve had to dissect every aspect of how the site functions to understand how to mirror things, from its history through how it does crazy […]
- Geocities Fading Away
Farewell, Geocities. It was nice knowing you. (Wait, no it wasn’t!) In a message on Yahoo!’s help site, the company said that it would be shuttering Geocities, a free web-hosting service, later this year and will not be accepting any new customers. Update: I wrote a bit more on the fandom side of things over […]
- Social Bots
Amazing how many “people” are sending Facebook messages to the postmaster account, offering helpful links to resources for *ahem* improving uptime. On a related note: Google’s Social Graph thinks I own Cute Overload. It seems to treat all LiveJournal syndication feeds as one profile, and I linked to K2R’s LJ feed with XFN.
- The REAL Problem with Twitter
Twitter asks its users the wrong question, and it’s outgrowing the limitations of SMS messages.
- Does That Have a Hyphen?
Why is it that Firefox consistently truncates the title “Google Analytics” at the worst possible spot?
- Thoughts on #AmazonFail (or is that #SorryAmazon?)
Even if it was unintentional, Amazon screwed up responding to the PR disaster.
- G1 Fun
Fun climbing office staircase with the G1 and watching as WiFi networks appear and disappear.
- Blocking the Impulse Buy: Shazam, Amazon MP3 Store and Android
How I *almost* bought an album from my phone immediately after hearing a song on the radio, and what obstacles stopped me.
- Email Confusion
Why do people email me to tell me email is down? WHY? What makes them think I’ll receive the message? Obligatory User Friendly comic (Jan 28, 1999): Just as confusing: A spammer sent me this urgent message: “We need to remove cupboard, come on!” Uh, yeah, I’ll get right on that…
- BlogExplosion Starting to Recover
It looks like the campaign to reclaim BlogExplosion is working! The efforts to bury the forum spam have brought new members into the site, and earlier this week a new administrator appeared on the forums, banning over 55 accounts used by spammers and deleting 13,000 spam posts. This morning, the banner approval I’ve been waiting […]
- Cloudy Connection
A cloud device in an area with a flaky connection really underscores the importance of offline sync.
- WordMess
Must remember: No pasting from MS Word into WordPress. It’s faster to paste plain text and redo formatting than clean up Word’s mess.
- Reclaiming BlogExplosion
Its owners seem to have abandoned the site to let it run on autopilot. Most of it is automated, but there are features that require administration.
- Reading Comics on the Phone: Hexed on the G1
A look at the way iVerse’s comic book reader works on the Android-based market, and how well it translates comics from print.
- Tracing the Premio Dardo
I did some research on the blogging award Premio Dardo (Dart Award), seeking its origins and the ways the meme mutated as it was passed along.
- Geekery: WiFi and Presidential HTML
Hmm. I’ve used internet cafes while travelling, but have no idea wher to find one w/in 20mi of home. WiFi hotspots, OTOH, are everywhere. Political geekery; saw a bumper sticker reading </bush>. Only prob: tag should be <president name="bush">. Did I mention geekery?
- LJ Shakeup
Oh, fun. Time to look up a LiveJournal archiver, just in case… Gawker: The Russian Bear Slashes a Social Network Not Dead Yet: LiveJournal will be run by the US arm with software development in Russia. Hmm… LJ archive tools CNET: LJ Deletes “about a dozen” jobs LJ Press release